


Paradise lost

by Elfen1012



Category: RWBY
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, Prequel, Regret, Romance, Tragedy, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-05-25 03:10:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6177877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elfen1012/pseuds/Elfen1012
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You and I both know how this story ends. We know the repercussions. The heartbreak, but I'd like to think there is still some value in learning why this tale of two maiden's eventually ends in none. Value in Raven's story. Summer and Raven's love story, bound and predestined for a bad end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Paradise

     The Forever Fall Forest is always in the process of change, the uniformly drifting leaves float shortly after birth, right passed the black bark of their parents. Snow did not build up on the lightly colored surface, the woods kept warm by coastal winds mixing with the cold of mountain drifts. It is fall forever, the forest never changed. Raven saw the beauty in something like that, something temporally divorced. It is, as far as I know anymore, her favorite place in Remnant. That forest saw mankind come, it will see them go, if we ever do.

     So permanent, always changing.

     "I can walk, you know," Raven complained, never taking the assistance of others well. Self-reliance was what she learned from her former faunus teacher, and she would often preach its importance. "The griffin bit my side, not my damn leg. Let me go."

     "No can do, princess," Qrow quipped, pulling his sister up from the right side, a human crutch. His sword stuck to his back with the help of magnetics, allowing a free hand to carry the most cliché of woven picnic baskets.

     "Doctor's orders are for you to relax and not lift a thing, and that includes yourself!" Summer Rose took the left, skipping in her shorter strides, carrying only Raven's weapon with her for defense. Summer wasn't a cautious girl. Shorter than Qrow, the whole affair was off angled, Raven slumped against the tiniest member of team STRQ. It must have been terribly painful, but she enjoyed it. If there was ever someone for her to be slumped down on, Raven would have picked Summer.

     "Doctor's orders were for me to stay in a hospital bed, strapped down preferably," the older twin countered, no doubt considering that the worst possible outcome of the day. Fluttering through Forever Falls, well, her complaints lacked certain sincerity.

     "So where are we dropping grim, dark, and whiny?" Qrow asked, ignoring his sister entirely. Raven didn't care for it. To know Raven is to know her temper burns famously.

     "Do not ignore me, I will break you!" Her legs still worked. Raven tested them, trying to kick in her brother's knees. On the first successful knock and Qrow released her, stepping off toward the protection of a tree. Raven nearly tumbled with the sudden drop in support, taking the fastest route into a face full of red stained dirt. "Shit!"

     "I got you!" Summer shouted, long before actually getting her, clutching her teammate and taking a knee. It felt more like a hug than hostage taking now, and even if the uncalled for pressure on Raven's side made her wince, this was better. "I think this spot's good, Qrow!"

     "Got it," the brother noted from where he hid, sauntering in with the supplies, a white and grey blur in an otherwise colorful world. "Where do you want the blanket?" Summer pointed to a tree with roots cutting out small seats, their back the trunk. Hoisting Raven up with small but powerful hands, she brought the girl over to where the cover was tossed haphazardly. Styles different, Raven liked the way their black skirts always matched, mixing together as their hips touched.

     "Can you please inform me as to what exactly is going on here?" The question was likely a formality. Raven gathered enough from the cloth cover and woven basket. She smiled, thinking her partner silly. Didn't she know not to stray off the path in the wood, wolves could turn her perfect white cloak red. Shame Raven wasn't a faunus, she was already hungry for her. "I wanted out of the hospital, I figured you'd drive us home."

     "We have about two and a half hours before our meeting with Ozpin," Summer noted like her secretary, lowering the injured girl to the forest floor. More comfortable for her to put knees down on wool instead of dirt, being propped against the trunk the aching wound in her side was relieved of the pressure and drained of the pain. Raven could finally appreciate the moment. Sun breaking apart into a comfortable scatter through the red, a slow wind dragged the dropping leaves with it. Summer was above her, white cloak spilling out on either side, face so close Raven could almost pull her down, get all mixed together. "And I thought, perfect time for a date to show the most important person in my life exactly how awesome she is."

     Summer, Summer was such a wonderful human being. You have to understand this, if you understand nothing else. The key to paradise, Raven's personal heaven.

     "And what is my brother, the perpetual third wheel, gonna do? Watch?" Raven joked to politely request his departure. To his credit, Qrow had historically taken well to those suggestions. This time too, lips pulling apart for a lopsided grin, almost letting loose a chuckle, he nodded.

     "Nah, I'm going to go off and, you know, hit things with my sword. I'll be in earshot of a scream, so you know, if ursa start looking at Summer like finger food, call me." Raven tossed him an approving nod, seeing his classic cape whip around so he could walk away dramatically. _Nerd_ , Raven thought loudly.

     "Wait, do you want a sandwich first? We got some wine, too! I feel bad sending you off without anything to show for all the help," Summer whined, pulling away, painfully, from Raven. Silently ache as she might, the Branwen's favorite thing about her love was that kind thoughtfulness. Even if it did ruin everything.

     "Nope, it's bad to drink and fly." Back then, Qrow barely touched alcohol. It was poison to him long before it became medicine.

     "Happy hunting, brother," Raven muttered to her twin. Like a signal he vanished, a crow flapping out of the forest, beyond the crimson canopy. Summer's favorite parlor trick out of all the Branwen's combined talents.

     "It's crazy he can do that," Summer mumbled, watching the last vestige of the male Branwen. It irked Raven, to watch her watch Qrow so intently. The cloak was easy enough for her to snag, the injured girl pulling her lover to the floor. Summer didn't fight it, or even seem surprised by the drop, accepting her fate and plopping down onto the blanket with just a touch of bounce.

     "How do you know I can't do that?" Jealousy pumped into Raven's veins on more than one occasion, though she was skilled at laughing it off, keeping a smirk on over the pain. Summer never seemed to notice, blind of Raven's imperfections.

     "You cut holes in space," Summer noted, edging herself close to Raven, eyes open and curious, taking everything into those silver gems.

     "And maybe I can turn into a bird, too," Raven played, facing her head on, noses almost touching, red against grey. "I have many tricks up my sleeve."

     "Ohh, really now? Why didn't you ever tell me you could turn into a majestic…"

     "Raven?" the darker girl cut in. Summer laughed, head snapping back in a full voiced cackle. This spurred Raven on, wanting to see that smile widen till it burst at the seams. "Well, you see, in that form I could follow you around and swoon like a little school girl all through Beacon." Wasn't until after graduation that Raven confessed. Summer's answer then was a predictable 'well ,of course I like you, too.' Four years they had wasted pining and inactive.

     "So you used it to peek?" Summer's brow peaked with her interest. Turning over, Summer comfortably straddled her partner, arms pushing against the tree like support pillars. With every word, she edged a little closer.

     "Theoretically," Raven responded, resisting closing the gap. The stitches on her side might have stained her another fresher red if she let her wants take control.

     "Well, maybe," Summer licked her chapped lips, peeling away the tense air between them. Leaning in, Raven could feel her breath, hot like a maiden's fire as their noses brushed each other. "I would have wanted you to watch." The crimson color, matching Raven's armor, torched their cheeks a uniform shade. Summer couldn't even handle herself. "Oh god, that's so embarrassing to even joke about, why do we do this!?" The girl flopped to the side, hiding her face in fallen leaves, a mess of white and black.

     "You can't play chicken with me, Summer," Raven muttered, flat out ignoring the tightening throughout her body, "I'm simply too cool for you." Raven stuttered soundlessly between the words, a master of hiding her imperfections.

     "Shut up, nerd!" Summer punctuated with a fist full of leaves right to Raven's face. The young huntress ducked away to shield her eyes from the hailstorm of red.

     "Stop it, you're—" Raven's lips caught on Summer's, twisting her head back and right into a kiss. Summer's kiss. Sweet lips that preferred sweet words and a sweeter world. It sucked the breath from Raven's lungs and the pain from her side. Like Forever Fall, she was temporarily locked, tomorrow and yesterday fell away, only then.

     "How do you like that then, chicken?" Summer broke the lock, separating the lips and promoting the clock to start again. Wind picked up, the forest continued to shed, and all was changing again.

     "I didn't back away, so I win," Raven whispered, dumbstruck, her defense a natural reaction to protect her pride, the default. Summer scoffed, unwilling to accept something so boring.

     "You just ruin everything." Blowing a stray red hair from her face, Summer returned to her usual goofy state, seated between her own roots, legs curled up on the blanket. "Alright," she started, popping open the casket of goods, some assortment of pre-made sandwiches and that bottle of wine pledged earlier, "what would you like? We've got only a little bit of time before Ozpin needs us back at Beacon." If ever a name spoiled Raven's appetite and turned sour a perfect world of sweet sugar and red syrup, it was Headmaster Ozpin.

     "Why," Raven muttered, biting her lip to hold back the venom building in her throat, "should he be allowed to ruin a lovely afternoon? We're not students at his school anymore." The rage had burned up her blood for years, building with the headmaster's every misstep, but she tried to swallow it, even as it cooked her throat. The world respected him, most importantly, Summer respected him.

     "Yeah, but you are the Summer Maiden," Summer retorted without any of the Branwen family flame, "I'm probably going to be the next Spring Maiden, unfortunately, and Ozpin's the head of the Brotherhood, so our boss." The cheap five lien white wine bottle had promised at least a little soothing, the popping sound enticing Raven, another family proficiency.

     "If the Brotherhood is suppose to protect the maiden, why does it feel like we're the servants?" Raven asked, reaching for a glass to wash away some of the despairing ink that discolored her mind. Summer, of course, seized up, mouth twitching to a frown. The discussion of politics never did well for their relationship. "I'm not saying I shouldn't serve the people, I just mean," Raven sucked in the cold of Vale through her nose, hoping to catch her breath and worlds, "I swore my Odachi toward the protection of the people when I gained these powers, not my body and soul, and not to him. If it's not helping real people, why does Ozpin need us at his beck and call? I need to heal, don't I have a right to this time with you?"

     Summer had her turn to breath as a falling red leaf danced passed her. "Experience, Raven." _Plenty of old fools in the world_ , Raven wasn't the first to think so. "Ozpin was old when we were young. Guy kind of knows, like, everything. Think of how lost you would have been when you took on the Maiden's power without him. Maybe the Brotherhood's a little archaic, but it works the way it does for a reason."

 _Then tell me it! That's all you have to do is tell me it!_ Internal screams died down, and the fire got snuffed out, just by the way Summer smiled, tilting her head as if a new angle might reveal some more of Raven's struggles. It didn't help her understand the maiden better, but it did quiet the storm. Negative feelings couldn't survive the silver gaze. "I know, I just, I feel like all my freedom is gone. I wasted all the good years of my life chasing you." Raven reached out her hand to brush her lover's face. The cloaked girl closed the gap before she could hurt herself again.

     "I did too, like dogs running after eachother's tail."

     "Please," Raven whispered, too tired for anything louder, "chasing my fine ass if never a waste."

     "You are so dumb," Summer laughed, the sound ripping through their frozen perfect place, a signal for the times to change, "I love you."

     "I love you, too." What would be the first crack in paradise rumbled. "Now hand me the glass! I'm injured, baby me!"

* * *

     "The hell are you doing here, Ironwood?" More machines than men awaited the pair's arrival in Ozpin's office. The place was a swirling clockwork nightmare, as far as Raven was concerned, its shifting gears emitting a terrible ticking that burrowed into the skin and shook the bone. The green above spawned from a toxic looking light, everything seemed so fake, so artificial to her. This place had a magic alien to nature.

     Then there was, as she would say, James fucking Ironwood.

     "Branwen, it's been a long time. Do you need help?" James Ironwood had never done anything _specific_ to Raven or her team, but the Beacon rivalry between teams had always been deep. His perfectly sculpted form, the way his clothing clutched to him for warmth, the pitch hair cut to a perfect polygon, an opposition to Raven's wild ponytail. That Atlas attitude marred by such ignorance of faunus culture it bordered racism. Mantle's best. Perfect, divorced from the disorder of life. _Unnatural_. That didn't even touch on the Atlas Knights, grey unpleasant machines of war that lacked even the grimm's connection with the organic world.

     "No, I have my living crutch, thank you," Raven spat back in spite. Even if she had to look weak, Qrow and Summer balancing her steps and leading her forward, she refused his kind of help. Just talking to him felt like slapping her old master in the face. "Why are you in Vale?" A high ranking officer in Beacon with a battalion of bots didn't leave her comfortable.

     "Raven!" Soft voiced Amber came running to the rescue, probably didn't even know it. A little girl then, just a seventeen year old cursed already with the Autumn Maiden's power. Her mother died of a heart attack, the previous Fall Maiden. This should have been her first year at Beacon, more worried about grades than the fate of the world. The sweet girl had no one to relate to, no one to share the troubles only they knew, but Raven. Spring, Summer's grandmother, was sickly in a hospital bed, and Winter lived freer than the rest, playing politics in Atlas. Ozpin's favorite pet maiden, she was fond of calling her.

     "Hey kid. How has the Vytal festival been? I haven't been watching since Mistral's time zone is so weird." Raven wasn't good with kids, she didn't hate them so much as they just… Raven's natural habitat was in monster slaying. Children require a... gentler approach, but with Amber, she had always tried.

     "I don't care. I heard you got hurt?!" It was a mistake to send Raven alone after a pack of roaming griffins. Qrow followed at a distance, as Ozpin ordered, but a distance wasn't enough to prevent a little misstep.

     "I'm good, kid," Raven laughed, pounding the fabric of her robe. It hurt like hell, but so long as she kept a smile, the younger Maiden relaxed. "I'm the better bird."

     "That you are." Ozpin. He interrupted with confidence one might expect from a headmaster. He carried himself like a father to all, walking with that special cane, hand hugging a mug fresh for another day. He liked to fancy himself a happy sage, prone to statements of optimism that hid his growingly utilitarian actions. "I'm very happy to see you standing," his brown eyes shifted over to Summer, the next in line for maidenhood, "with a little help."

     "I hope you don't mind me barging in on the meeting!" Summer was already a member of the Brotherhood, she had a right to be there, but her nature was courteous. Qrow was less so.

     "Me too, you know I love sitting around talking shop, especially with your new death robots." The twins shared much in personality, but nothing in opinion. Qrow had absolute trust in Ozpin, though he liked to throw punches, if just to reassure his sister. They entered this world together and no matter what, Qrow was convinced they were a team till death. Raven loved him for it.

     "The Atlas Knights are state of the art combat drones, capable of adapting targets on the fly, addressing a variety of security threats, and most importantly, incapable of betrayal. You can't bribe hardware,"James cut in, his voice full of pride, the hints of a grin at the edge of his lips. The display of advanced toys meant to gain approval from the graying father. Of course, Ozpin nodded brown soft eyes shining with pride.

     "More importantly, they are discrete when it comes to what they hear," the headmaster always preferred a hand in subtlety, a purveyor in secrets. Even within the Brotherhood what one was allowed to hear was segmented, grouped by necessity. "As much as I think we'd all prefer a more human touch, the complications would make it quite a pricey comfort. Please, all of you come into my office. There is some unfortunate news." Raven spotted the future between the lines, curbed freedoms.

     "It's not about Spring, is it?" Summer asked, letting go of Raven and skipping after the headmaster. Fear for her grandmother was reasonable, and though the sudden lack of support stung, Qrow quick to take the weight without a flinch, it ached less than missing her.

     "No, none of the Maidens are hurt. At least, not more than they usually are," Ozpin joked, peering at Raven from above the shrunken rims of his glasses. His way of chiding others. "Though," the headmaster added, stepping into his god awful metal monster of a chair, right at home amongst the shifting gears above and below, "not for lack of trying, a woman at a party put Winter to a poison knife. Atlas Military dispatched the attacker and the knife never made it past her aura." Summer put a palm to her lips to push back her gasp. Amber wasn't as prepared, the girl jumped as if the knife was pointed at her neck.

     "Woah there," Raven's hand snapped to her shoulder, quick to anchor her back to reality, "It's okay Amber, breathe with me, okay?" Being a maiden has always meant three truths. Everyone wanted to protect you, own you, or kill you.

     "Miss, you do not need to be afraid," Ironwood cut in, getting on a knee to match stature to their station in this Brotherhood. The sharp strength of his jaw, the sturdy gaze of his eyes, all whispered authority. "I'm here to make sure you and the other Maidens are safe while our best investigate. The greatest military power in the world stands between you and them." Amber's breath steadied, back to normal after one big gulp of air. She was a brave child, born to be a huntress.

     "We aren't sure if the one who ordered the assassination is even aware of the maiden's power." More than one nefarious reason in Remnant for murder. "Winter has her hands in Atlas politics, and with the General getting older, it's a dangerous time there. So let's not rush to conclusions."

     "The General is only fifty years old. The other commanders are getting way too ahead of themselves trying to supplant her." In less than ten years, Ironwood succeeded her.

     "With that in mind, please do not fret. We are in a time of unparalleled peace. Sleep easy. With a touch more security in place, just to be cautious." Ozpin crossed his legs and leaned back, a habit usually meant to signal the end of meetings. "James, please escort Amber back to her team. I'm sure she would appreciate the stories of a former Beacon graduate." Summer snaked her arm back around Raven, the trifecta turning her around. "Raven and Summer, would you mind waiting a second? They'll catch up to you, Qrow." Clever way to say get the hell out.

     "I think I'm good right here, Oz—"

     "I'm good, Qrow. You go find Taiyang, he's probably freaking out I'm not in bed." Raven cut him loose. Too often she felt like the cause of friction between them. Qrow's expression twisted, annoyed, but he let it go. Hand's going to the back of his head, he twirled, and walked off after Ironwood. "Don't be stupid, sis."

     "I'm only ever brilliant, brother." He made Raven laugh, a rare trait. Ozpin watched, though she could not confirm it, behind the shades, waiting for the elevator to close on him. "Look, if it's about the incident with the griffin, I was just trying not to use the power like you said. I don't need the tin men or the lock in hospital."

     Ozpin took in a fresh dose of air, likely formulating the best choice of words, plan of attack. His usual methods had always been mixed with Raven. She preferred simpler, smaller souls, so a simpler smaller method would do. "Miss Branwen, I apologize for this invasive question, but are you seeing a romantic partner, or have any interest in such things?" Raven laughed so hard, her wound nearly popped. She could be flirty, but getting hit on by an old man she low key distrusted was not the plan.

     "Raven and I are lovers, sir," Summer ended with a bullet. Calm, direct, dispassionate. It was an extremely rare response from such a cheery woman. She was quite pissed.

     "That's wonderful," Ozpin replied with a smile, either unaware or unconcerned with how they took such a brazen approach, "Love is such a hard thing to find, even if it complicates this next part. I can't begin to explain how good that is to hear," Ozpin punctuated with a sip of black coffee, adding an uncomfortable silence to an uncomfortable situation. "We are," the headmaster began again, "in a time of unheard of peace. Not since the Great War—"

     "And the Rights Rebellion," Raven interjected like a snake bite. She was ashamed her race so quickly liked to brush that war under the rug, unsure if it was either shame of defeat or racism that left it so quickly forgotten.

     "Yes, I consider that more a painful step toward the future than a senseless bloody conflict," Ozpin sidestepped, trying to return to the point without ruffling the raven's feathers, "This path towards a perpetual peace and brighter future is in no small part due to the power of the maidens. Not since the Great War has there been a rogue Maiden. This power has for the last eighty years been used solely for the benefit of both humanity and the faunus. Without it, much of our world could be lost.

     "Which is why, with much hesitation, I'm considering resurrecting an old practice. I need to ask if you would consider, in whichever way you choose, becoming a parent, Raven." The top office could never truly be silent, ticking clockwork and all that, but in that moment, between the stilling of Ozpin's lips and the next chime, a shift founded like a hurricane.

     "You're asking me to get pregnant?" Raven vomited her question, unable to rationalize it in any other specific way.

     "Artificially or naturally. We could insure your baby would be a girl. The most successful way to ensure the maiden powers not fall into criminal hands is for the maidens to be mothers. Autumn is too young for us to even consider such a thing, I won't have it, and I've already spoken to Winter. Leaving yourself, Raven, and Summer, who is likely to be the next Spring," Ozpin sighed, lungs pushed on by the pressure of his position, or at least he liked to seem that way, "I had hoped perhaps you might would be thinking of such a thing anyways, but I have a feeling, all things considered, it is not being actively pursued."

     "No," Raven replied. No to pursuing, no to the whole idea. She wasn't even thirty yet, if at any age it was a real consideration. Raven did not want childre—

     "I always kind of wanted to be a mom," Summer announced, near a whisper into a choked room. She looked almost ashamed, eyes downcast and shadowed by her hood.

     "You never mentioned that!" Raven felt angry, Ozpin manipulating them, and embarrassed, not knowing Summer even wanted a future like that. Too much time spent in Forever Fall frozen in the now.

     "I mean," Summer's voice cracked, "I figured it'd be a bit later in my life, but I pictured you know, in our future maybe." Ozpin smiled, and Raven wanted to rip it off his face.

     "I won't force this," _not directly_ , "but I am not suggesting this like it's a Sunday picnic. We were lucky that the former Autumn Maiden had Amber. We were lucky the knife didn't dig into Winter, and lucky that griffon bit down on you instead of swallowing whole. We are three for three in luck. Think on this, Raven, please, and come back to me." Ozpin's legs recrossed, the subtly ended by the opening of elevator doors, "Thank you for your time, I'm sorry to push this on you." Raven's blood burned as Summer obeyed. All the weight on this one small Rose, she hefted her teammate out of the hall. Hiding behind the cloak. Raven knew what that meant.

     Once the elevator door closed, the silence became unbearable. Outwitting Raven was simple. "Are you seriously considering this?" Raven's red eyes looked for Summer's face, but her cloak obscured it. Their leader had more courage against monsters than her lover.

     "It's your body, I'll respect your decision," Summer started. Raven knew it was true, but the cracks of premature pain were already forming on her heart. "I do think Ozpin's right. We've been together for six years now, the best time ever. I want you to know I'd be ready for it." Summer didn't have to say it, Raven knew, knew for a while actually, she wanted more from them. Maybe marriage would have been the preferred, but this division had grown over the last year or so. Time never stopped, change always happened. Raven wanted Forever Fall again.

     "I'd make a terrible mother," Raven hid behind ineptitude. A feeble defense.

     "You'd be super mom," Summer laughed, picturing a domestic scene that would never come to pass, "You're great with Amber."

     "Amber doesn't shit in diapers," shit was always a desperate response. Raven was scared, choked, pretending to not care, always in control. Summer would drop it if she just told her that. Little hubris, not big ones, caused calamity. "It wouldn't be yours, you know."

     "She doesn't need to grow in my belly to grow in my heart," Summer's words were rock solid, tossed like bricks back at Raven. She had taken it as an insult, so it seemed to the one in red and black. "I would love her, I don't care if we're not related. If she's our child, she's _our_ child."

     "So you wouldn't care if I had to fuck some other guy, huh? You'd love the kid?" Raven's hand balled into a fist and had to resist every fiber in her body not to eat that first. _Why the fuck would you say that?_ Raven screamed internally. Anger at Ozpin, at this situation, turned like a blade on the people she loved. It was easier to be sarcastic, to be funny, but with pain Raven was like fire, burnt what she touched.

     "You wouldn't have to—" Summer stopped, knowing damn well that wasn't the point. "Even if you left me," Raven could hear her choke. She had made Summer cry. "I would love her, she'd be our baby. Stop making this about me when you know it's not."

 _I'm sorry, Summer,_ Raven wanted to cry, but the elevator beeped, first floor was here now. "Alright, Summer." The fissure was growing. Raven knew it was a mistake then, but acts of faith can be like that. Sometimes jumping means hitting the concrete. Sometimes it means a well intended collapse. Trust it would work itself out. It will. Poorly. "Find a donor."

     "Taiyang?" Summer muttered as the doors opened, biting her lip. "He's your best friend."

     "Okay," Raven muttered, fear of rejection overpowering her fear of the future. For Summer, she would do anything. "You won't hate me after?" Raven cracked just a little, a second of truth seeping out. Summer looked at her for the first time since Ozpin planted the seed of first sin.

     "Raven," Summer's eyes were clear silver, lined with red and dripping emotions, but she smiled. She was hopeful for a future together, no matter which way the winds went. It was not her fault. "I will love you always, no matter what you decide."

     Raven should have believed her.


	2. Eve

     "Ozpin's had me drink this shit every night, plus this weird powder stuff in the morning. I feel like I'm the test dummy of some dangerous witch doctor." Taiyang took to the left window corner of the room, opposite of the bed, opposite of Raven. He found a way to shove himself between the metal box fireplace and the small two person dining table. He was shirtless, blonde hair poking out of his chest in confused directions. Not something Raven was unaccustomed to, in her room or his, but the context changed it. This wasn't either one's home. This was, as far as Raven considered it, Ozpin's personal fuck room. Honestly just an extra space for professors unable to go home, but no. To Raven, it was the fuck room, site of unholy rituals. The next coming in yellow, with smiling white teeth, and a lot of nervous shaking.

     "If it comes from Ozpin, it'll work." Raven didn't cower in any comfortable pocket. She sat on the bed's edge, nightstand to her right holding a three pronged candelabra as the room's primary light source. The fire bronzed her skin, Raven's body nude, though her black hair and arched forward position blocked the view of anything but the bumps of her spine. Only she was permitted visitation of her body. Her dispassionate breast, her meekly breathing stomach, closed thighs, the dark curled hair below, she found nothing about herself sexy, not right now.

     "Am I the only one feeling like a gold lab rat right now?" Taiyang chuckled. Realizing it wasn't funny, he drowned his words with the rest of the concoction of Ozpin's. Together they were a cocktail of drugs promising to insure a girl, insure they'd only have to once. "You know we don't have to, well, you know," he reiterated like she wasn't already regretting it.

     "I'm not telling my child her father was a catheter and pumping machine." It was a stupid sentiment. She knew it was stupid, Taiyang knew it was stupid, Ozpin knew, and Summer knew even if she wouldn't say it. All doing it the "normal" way did was put a bit of venom in the veins of their relationship. Maybe that was the point, punish Summer. I don't choose to believe that.

     She loved her so much. If that's not true, nothing else I tell you is. Maybe, maybe it was to punish someone else entirely.

     "You're all natural kick sure has given me hell. I still can't believe you ride horseback for your missions. People talk about old souls, well yours seems about a century overcooked." Taiyang didn't stop with the jokes. Couldn't really, even if his throat dried up from a silent crowd. It was their connection, and even then, Raven grinned. Hidden by hair, but she did. "Summer really does find it cute though," he laughed in the wrong place, "You sure you don't want her to come in?" Raven's grin vanished.

     Summer had offered, offered to come in with them. To hold Raven, kiss her eyes, hold her hand, whisper into her neck and keep her mind off the foreign feelings. Raven refused. Not because she questioned the sentiment, but the memory, she noticed how Taiyang blushed at the suggestion. Raven had ignored his swimming mind, but the suggestion made her sick. "You hoping you could fuck her, too?"  
"Raven, that's no—"

     "I know," Raven cut off. She fought the urge to bite through her index nail, settling on an uncomfortable nibble. "Have you ever hated me for it? Getting together with Summer, I mean."

     "What? I don't hate you, that's ridiculous," Taiyang answered to an entirely different question. Her bare feet patted the rug in soundless repetition, yet Raven could not seem to circle back to what bothered her deeply, about Taiyang, about his place in this strange triangle.

     "Do you still love her?" Closer to the nugget inside. Honestly, Raven wouldn't blame him if he did. She never had to watch her dreams flutter away into someone else's bed. She got to be in that bed every night till tonight.

     There was a pause, because Taiyang was an inherently honest man. "Yeah, and so what? Raven we both loved her, but you're my best friend. We agreed, if she picked one, we'd support each other. When she told me she liked you, who did I come running to tell?" Raven nodded as Taiyang braved out from his corner, "And who was the designated driver on your last anniversary tear? And who is one day going to be your best man, right?"

     "If I ever marry," Raven joked, eyes turning up from the floor and back across the room towards Taiyang's tempered steps. They both chuckled at the thought, even if he did it with a tiny bit more trepidation. His body arched down and pace slowed to reduce noise, like Raven was a snake in the center of the room ready to bite.

     "That's not the point, bud, the point _is_ I am on your side. Honestly, I don't know what the hell is going on, why this is happening, why Ozpin's shoving pills down my throat, or why you all suddenly want kids, but you need me, so I'm here," his voice crackled as he spoke like the sparks of a fire. Taiyang was often called a coward, mostly by ignorant hunters or those equally ignorant of the hunter's life, but he wasn't. To the brave, as Raven often explained, courage comes naturally, and then, with much more difficulty, there were the noble few who had to choose courage. "I want you to know, all you need to say is you don't want this, and it ends. I leave, and if the fucking Atlas prick sitting at the end of the hall tries to stop me I'll clock him in the face.."

     He had such uncommon resolve. He must have noticed the tears dripping off Raven's chin. "Is this cheating?"

     "I don't think so, and most importantly, Summer doesn't either." Taiyang didn't touch her, just sat on the foot of the bed presence, not skinship, required. "We don't have to do this, you know?"

     "She really wants the kid, Taiyang," Raven tried to explain without explaining. Ozpin's orders, Taiyang was in the dark. He didn't know what the four maiden's were, much less her membership in that magical circle. He had come to suspect the existence of the brotherhood, but its purpose...how could anyone guess this madness?  
"For your information, you can say no to her. She won't stop loving you. She can wait, or have her own damn kid." Raven bit her lip, a flush of air left her nose hot and tinted with rage.

     "No, he'll make her hate me, he will," Raven lost her composure, faced with the one opponent she couldn't seem to outmatch in Summer's heart. He was like a father to her, and a father's love and admiration were powerful tools of manipulation.

     "Who?" Taiyang asked, but got no reply. Just saying the name put everything at risk. Despite ignorance, to Taiyang, no one had that power. "Summer's not like that." No she wasn't, but fear is an interesting parasite. In bred well and laid eggs throughout Raven's inatiquices and insecurities. The more valuable the person at risk, the more food the larvae had to feed.

     Raven was deathly afraid of Ozpin.

     "What do you really want, Raven," Taiyang pushed once more, he needed to hear it. Raven wanted a cool lake, colorless and dark aside from the vibrance of a whole moon and the dotted sparkles of light from the poked holes in the night's blanket. Her and Summer on the tall grass bank, hands zipper tied together, listening to the movement of water. Taiyang and Qrow were there of course, but not _there_. Propped up in the trees perhaps, safe from the wind that could peel away the world, monsters, man, deceit, anything but them, till Remnant was motionless. No one needs them, problems elsewhere, and there is the peace of stillness. Raven nodded with all the gentle motion of a rusted cupboard door. "I need to hear you say it, or it's no. I'm picking that for you."

     "I want you to do this." Maybe, just maybe, the dream on a lake bed, clearing through the reeds, could have a girl giggling with frayed black hair and crimson eyes. Maybe, by some miracle, some mad hope, they were silver instead. "Please."

     "Okay," Taiyang nodded with the gusto of a bobble head, "Yeah, so how do you want to, you know, do this?" Raven kept the dream in her mind, and fell back on the bed. She turned over on her knees, rear up at a 40 degrees flat angle, face in the safety of the pillow. She brushed her ponytail to the side and slammed the opposite ends of her pillows over her ears. She did not want to hear the sound of a biological factory piston. _The lake,_ she kept thinking, _go back to the lake_.

     Taiyang tried to say something, voice blocked by the pillows. Giving up, his hands touched her skin, the one sense she could not block out doing the communication for him. The hunter warned her, or tried to. He tapped once on her hip before the cold came. Wet lubricant with cutting edge, lab developed, medical properties that would aid in ensuring this child would be a girl. It tingled, cold over her warmest part, but smelled, even through her cloth shield, foul like used factory grease.

     He tried to say something again, two hands had grabbed the opposite ends of her hips and perfected this assembly line. Two cold drops sent a chill down Raven's back. The oil, more medicine? Tears? Two taps, a warning. The push came, barely getting an inch in.

     Wasn't that he was too big. Raven was no "traditional" maiden, and frankly Summer had easily put more impressive things than his first attempt inside her. Yet, even if the heart and mind agreed, Raven's body resisted, pointlessly tensing up. After the next push, he was in and at it with autonomous motorized rhythm. All the clenching did was make it hurt like hell.

_Think of the lake_ , Raven repeated, _me, Summer, and a bright smiling girl with black hair and silver eyes_.

* * *

     "You know, you really don't have to walk with me everywhere," Raven complained with half a heart. She couldn't pull the grin from her lips walking through the gardens around Beacon with Summer. "I'm fat, not dying."

     "I know, I just use the fact that you're preggers, and _not fat_ , as an excuse to latch onto you." Summer tugged on her partner's arm for emphasis. She matched Raven's slower strides, moving in a rhythmic cross step and hummed as they took the leisurely path through the flower rich park beside the hidden vault. Dirt below their feet, it sucked in the heavier steps of a 27 week pregnancy better than hard white stoned hallways.

     "Rather extreme, considering the troubles, for just a little arm action." Raven honestly did want to, no not want, but feared _not_ shaking her off. The discussion was bound to get heated, a necessity, at least in her mind. Such a waste, the day danced sweetly in warm, not hot nor cold, the last fall petals bloomed before them. They called for Raven to lay on the soil, and she should have listened.

     "I can be a little more forward," Summer declared, tilting her head closer and dropping just a small peck on Raven's jawline. It was tiny, it was silly, but Raven could not deny, with her ponytail swishing back and forth, the jaunty rush flooded her system.

     "You're hitting on old pregnant ladies now?"

     "I'm hitting on _my_ beautiful pregnant lady always." Summer said words like always without a bit of remorse or trepidation on her pale pink lips. Raven felt more cautious. Old faunus teachings her master drilled into her head taught of impermanence, an acceptance that those concepts were inherent lies. Yet, Summer could paint that impossible canvas with how she hummed her words.

     "You're a liar," Raven contended. A little retaliation, she knocked her hip against Summer's, immediately nauseated by the churning mass of her belly. The process of carrying a child turned out every bit as harrowing as it seemed, even more so for her. The fragility was a shock, even if the bloatedness of her feet wasn't. How easily her stomach knotted was unusual, though the doctor's assured Ozpin it was not detrimental. Summer became acclimated to seeing the signs.

     "Have you eaten?" Raven rolled her eyes, not wanting more of Ironwood's pre-planned and regimented diet. Summer dislodged herself from her partner and twirled around to the front of her, hands on her hips, eyes down to thin slits, and lips smashed together in a pout. "Raven?"

     "I'm going to eat after," she half lied. Raven planned on _trying_ to escape the campus security and get to some street vender. Such a sight for the students, Beacon's scant robotic guards chasing after an unknown pregnant woman. However, escape to Vale city seemed an unlikely goal.

     "No, you need food in you now." Summer found her quick solution in one of the several apple trees that dotted the park."I swear, I need to force feed you." Boot fixed into the heart shaped divot in the dark brown, serrated bark, the sweeter of the two lifted herself up and snatched a riper one of the long hanging treats. The fruit wasn't fully red, still needing more time hanging from its mother's limb, but Raven couldn't refuse. One part due to a shrinking stomach, ironic, and in equal measure to the satisfied look on Summer's face, a sunny little oval of smiles shining out of the hood.

     "That an order, leader?" Raven fought with no desire to fight. She took the fruit, bounced it in her hand, and walked along the grassy trail. Summer hopped along with her, previous protests ignored. "Don't have anything better to do?"

     "Nope."

     The garden was crisscrossed by campus pavement, walkways, short cuts, plazas, and the like. Ozpin stationed himself at the center of four. A symmetrical alcove of the geometrically perfect. He had a table set up, a small wooden thing with a lime and white cover. It was dragged out to prop up an iron coffee kettle, four glasses, a plate of biscuits, and a single leather bound book, not an object more.

     The man himself sat comfortably, sipping from his ceramic cup with a gold lined top. He stared up at the orchard trees behind the yellow of his lenses, comfortably distant. He was confident of the afternoon's civility, even if his compatriot wasn't. Ironwood never seemed at ease sitting anywhere, still doesn't. Men of action wither in stillness. James that afternoon stood with the occasional ten second long pace back and forth. The far chair was his, regardless.

     "Summer, Raven, good to have you both. Sit and have a morning cup with me?" Ozpin invited with two of his lawn chairs already pulled out and free. Raven's at the far end, Summer's between them both. Not that they were marked, but presentation dictated and the sweet one followed through.

     "Of course, professor." Summer skipped to her seat, slid into it, and whistled the tense atmosphere into oblivion. "May I?" she asked, and Ozpin nodded. In one hand she took the espresso pot and poured herself a full glass, the other patted the far left chair. She smiled back at Raven, nodding her over, and Ironwood soundlessly pulled out the chair further to support the added girth of a woman as late as she. Raven noted, as she finally took her position, that her glass was already full of some yellow tinted drink, an herbal tea made just for a young pregnant woman like herself. Ironwood picked it out of a list for the event.

     "Afternoon, Ozpin," Raven skipped her preplanned tea, holding up her apple instead, too young, but much more free, "I was hoping to discuss—"

     "Raven," James cut her surprised them all at this point, he should have known better. "Is that an apple? You can't eat that, we haven't—"

     Raven interrupted him with a crunch, the juice of the apple tasted great as it flooded her mouth in sour rebellion. She waited, slowly chewing the hardy bite until he opened his chiseled jaw one more time. Crunch. He really should have known better.

     "Ignoring how much we structure your meals for your health, do you have any idea how easy it is to poison someone with an—"

     Ozpin interrupted the growing shout with a heavy cough. When the headmaster made a sound, people shut up and listened. Unsurprisingly, Ironwood followed suit like any other. "James, it's one apple. Grown right here, picked by Summer. I think we can let it go. A minor offense, if any." The Atlesian breathed heavy and hot, but said nothing. Raven added a third crunch to see what would happen. "Raven, do understand James comes from a much more dangerous place in some senses." Plenty of deadly fruit on the dinner plates of a dictator's court.

     "Understood." Ironwood did not sit down. His hands gripped the backboard of his unused chair, back tilted over in a hunch above them all. Young, healthy, and to be feared, but Ozpin pretended not to notice.

     "How are you? How are you feeling, Raven? Any discomfort?" Ozpin asked. His eyes gleamed just over the bridge of his glasses, with a doctor's compassionate detachment.

     "I'm fine," Raven answered, knocked from her mental position, just a little. She never could escape the feeling that the question was directed more at her belly. "There are no complications."

     "She hates the food," Summer played advocate for her indentured hunter. "Also, we would really like to get her out more, maybe a trip through the plains of Vytal? I really think we should get some fresh air, not that the school's unfresh, but you know what they say about caged birds?" Raven hadn't mentioned that complaint, but the thought of soil and sands between their toes, the salt in the air, it sounded wonderful. Many faunus vagabonds and nomads to ride with, though maybe Raven was not in condition for that trip exactly. "Anyways, I'm lobbying that my client and I get more dates and top quality food. I'm talking personal chef. That's final."

     Ozpin indulged in a chuckle, his eyes locked on Summer as she rested her elbow on the table and chin in her hand like she had already won all her demands. "Is that all?" Ozpin eased back against the wood of his chair. His hands left the muh. One comfortably slapped onto the top of his cane, the other in his lap. "I'm sure we can arrange something in time. I'm surprised you didn't bring this up a little more casually. You're my guests for the time being, I intend to make sure you're comfortable here."

     "That's," Raven piped up, fingers grasping on the table edge for some invisible thread of conversation and what it was meant to be, "I mean, Summer's right. I would definitely like more food options, and freedom. I can't help but _feel_ a little caged, but that's not what I really wanted to talk about."

     "Yeah," Summer interjected, her light never could be stifled by anyone's sudden seriousness, "The date thing is more for me. I need more time with the wifey or I'm going to revolt." Ironwood nearly choked to death on his own tongue. Too sweet and silly for his meek digestion. Raven turned red and pink in one color overload. She hated being derailed, but the way Summer enunciated the stupid little word and reached over to hold her flinching hand beautifully infuriated her.

     "Well, of course, I always fold when it comes to my favorite silver eyed little huntress." Ozpin layered his gentry with compliments, though alerted by Raven. He crossed his legs in a position inclined toward command, cane laid above his lap. His intent in this case matched Raven's suspicions.

     "Again, I was hoping to talk about another matter." This was why Raven didn't want Summer here. Combined they cut out any hope of confronting the trouble. Ozpin prefered diversion, and Summer applied fear like a shield, deflecting direct accusation, even if she did not know what affect she had.

     "Is this about the financials?" An evasive left turn, a hope perhaps to give Raven something else to chew on today beneath the hot sun other than her actual wishes. "The brotherhood has set up a rather sizable collection, I promise, the time you lost hunting will be more than paid back in a permanent stipend. Are you in need of more now?"

     "Raven, I can take more missions?" Summer dropped her hood, eyes locking on her girlfriend, lips shrunken in a worried bite. She took the bait. Raven found that behavior low, even for Ozpin. He felt nothing. It was not intended, but not an unwelcome departure.

     "I assure you, Ozpin, Raven is in need of nothing. Any request the security team and myself can handle without her needing to dip into her reserves." Ironwood's pride pulled him back into the confrontation. If the headmaster of the brotherhood put him on bird cage duty, he was going to be the best. The last seventeen years have taught him quite a bit of humility.

     "James, you have no idea what I need," Raven snapped back. She was totally incapable of not antagonizing the man. They were spirits of two different worlds. They would stumble all over each other getting to a duel neither needed.

     "I'm quite confident whatever it is we can get it for you, please send me a list today. James and I will take care of it." Ozpin focused on the material, knowing damn well this was all about another thing entirely. Biting into the truth like her apple. Unripe, not the right time, but she would have it.

     "If he can't, I will. I promise, Raven." Summer went along of course, the combined three kicked every single chance down the road. The pregnant huntress felt her blood rise like flood waters, a hard kick of irritation on the walls of her stomach cracked the dam. She breathed to try and settle the storm, but the child kept moving, squirming under the skin. So angry.

     "Look, just listen!" Summer pulled away, ducked quick beneath the shielding of her hood. Raven felt a shred of guilt, but the movement inside her ate that feeling. The headmaster, leaned back, tapped his foot and held the end of his cane, eyes obscured behind the gold of his tiny glasses, smile whipped from his face. "I don't want things, Ozpin. You know that. You know a hell of a lot, and get away with telling us none of it. Ozpin, I put a baby in me for your schemes, it's time you stopped treating me like a chess piece."

     Summer hid in white clothe. Ozpin did not even shutter. Raven clenched her fist, and Ironwood gripped the top of his chair enough to crack the wood. "I've had enough of your games, Raven. Summer maiden or no, I will—"

     "It's alright, James," Ozpin's tongue flicked with ice breath. Cold and guarded. Body unmoved by the show on either end. "I do not know nearly as much as you think," how much of this was a lie, even I don't really know, "but if you must know the details, I have never hid them from you. You are a maiden, Miss Branwen. The secrets of the vault are your own. Follow me." He stood, taller than usual. His hand wrapped well around the cane. "Only Raven. Summer, you can know when you're a maiden."

     "Sir—" Ironwood tried to speak.

     "James, she is pregnant and it's our vault. We will be fine." None followed them. The walk was sullen and choked out any conversation. They never spoke, though the headmaster offered his hand to the huntress. Raven took it for support. It wasn't until the park melted away, the cold green of the inner cathedral could be seen from the elevators drop, the chill set in, that Ozpin began to speak again. "Remember, the truth is like a bite of any meal. It's not something undone. It becomes a part of you. There is no looking away from what you know. If you are certain you want to know, then please, please remember that not all good is accomplished through cleanly deeds." The vault. It holds all of our secrets, all of the truth, even if below the stained glass, the green flames, one does not see it all. It was a regrettable choice. The apple was not ripe.

* * *

     Disillusioned. The most generous of descriptors. Perhaps Raven was just destined for that slowly, but inside the vault, all she had heard and seen turned paranoid theory into half truth. It was a mistake to let her know, she was not ready, was not old enough to understand. If there was any vestige of faith in Ozpin or his world, it was suffocated on the marble floor on the vault.

     But it wasn't just Raven to her at the time, as odd as that may seem now. She stayed for Summer, for the child she was having. They could be her justification if Ozpin failed to provide any other. For that future, the vision on a lake in the reeds, the three of them, Raven simply behaved. At peace, maintained through hope. It came to a painful head three days early.

     The delivery went into a second day, child coming in just a few pounds over the average for a girl. There were no complications, no dramatic coils around the neck, she was quick to cry, and no deformities. Nothing terribly irregular aside from the length of the delivery.

     Raven was used to the pain, combat was her life, and did not take pain meds. She regretted that decision. It wasn't the potency of the pain that killed her, but the never ending aches, the pushing, the fight. It drained her very life. She felt aged, and the moment the crying started, her body shut down. Raven was greeted by a dreamless sleep. No reeds, no moon, no Summer, just restful darkness.

     Summer dragged her back from the abyss. "Love, are you okay to wake up? Someone wants to see you." Her red eyes fluttered in darkness. The white of the room dulled down. Evening had encroached. Sounds of footsteps, but few words polluted the air that carried Summer's voice. The moon shadowed her, it was cracked tonight, and the street light drowned out the stars. The air tasted stale on her dry lips, and her lower body all vibrated a singular ache.

     "She's healthy and wants to meet her mama." Summer embraced the child against her heart, a bundle of yellow cloth wrapped so tight the poor thing probably couldn't move. Summer kept her hood down for once, the red lined hairs of hers over the baby, she was so engulfed.

     "She's looking at her." Raven groaned. The young huntress felt deflated, barely able to move, but also wracked by an odd flavor of fear. She had yet to see her baby. Would the child look up to her and see her mother? Or was Summer already in that position. Such an odd thing to think, Raven even noted. They were both the mother, right? "Can I see her?"

     "Of course!" Summer's voice cracked with her declaration, sliding over to the hospital bed, the baby still coiled against her body. She was so protective.

     "Hand her over, I need to see...god, we need a name." Summer did as she was bid. The bundle of fabric with a baby within switched hands. A slight adjustment, and Raven could see all that she brought into this world, and tears dripped from her eyes full of sudden mourning.

     "For a name, I thought we could go for Yang Branwen, like the sun? Taiyang deserves a little credit, right?" Raven got it. She got it, looking into the creamy lilac eyes of the child, between its new short bouts of tiny wails. What hairs stuck to its head were thin gold strings. Once the fussing ended the smile on its little mouth had a sleepy infectious touch. Raven was sure this baby was going to grow up a lovable creature of the sun. She got it. Got why Taiyang's touch had felt like venom pumping into her. Summer took the child in her arms. "We can figure it out later. Oh damn, I'm gonna start crying, too."

     Was there anything, any piece, ribbon, stitch, or digit of this child that was Raven? Taiyang's child, the living ash of her abortive dream. Her little girl with silver eyes and black hair, her reeds and her full moon. The lake, the stupid hopes, it all died on the birthing bed. They warned of sudden bouts of depression that came after birth, but this was cruel, cruel to all of them. The child was such a little thing, she deserved the love of her mother. Raven believed that, I know she did, she had to.

     They held Taiyang's baby and all three of them cried together on that summer night's eve. One out of fussy exhaustion, one out of love, and the last out of mourning for a twin that never was to begin with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I am so sorry this is so late. First finals happened, then my editor took a much deserved trip to Ireland, then I was a lazy piece of shit. Anyways, chapters done! Expect others with more frequency.
> 
> So far I haven't gotten much feedback on this fic, but I do hope you enjoy it. This chapter was kind of the original piece of the idea, and honestly I think it's kind of powerful in some ways. Hope you all are enjoying it.
> 
> Also rosebird is cute. Thank you to LazyKatze again for editing!
> 
> Thank you to cat


	3. Rebellion

     “She’s too young to crawl,” Raven chastised, seated on the green carpeted floor in the far corner and splayed out for anyone. She could not seem to compose herself properly here, didn’t like to stand in the sunlight as the early dusk orange drew illuminated panels all over the room, aside from her little contained segment. A shadowed perch with a good view, a place to be.

     “No, but,” Amber argued, holding onto the covered feet of the three month old Yang, her padded foot kicking back at the older girl’s gentle hands, “she is adventurous, I can tell. She wants it bad.” Maybe she did, the lavender eyed tiny thing sure took well to “tummy time.” Raven and Amber would from time to time flip her over, it helped her build neck muscles and encourage movement. Summer joined them sometimes, but usually it was the two of them, Amber playing with the young babe and Raven watching. She prefered watching.

     “The young Ms. Long is very strong,” Ironwood, he was still here, “I have no doubt she’ll start crawling sooner than you think.” He also prefered watching, now that he was stuck here. A new attempt on the headmaster of Atlas locked him down. He, however, prefered to stand in the light, dim glow of the low sun added a bit of color to his white, he kept watch, gave the baby Yang twenty-four-seven care. Tried to take off some work from Raven. Everyone was. She had spent a grand total of ten minutes with the child alone. They all pretended, but the truth crossed their lips constantly. Only Qrow was willing to say it to Raven’s face.

     They kept Raven under watch because she wasn’t eating, because she wasn’t bonding with Yang like she should, looked so tired, so sad when it came time to feed Yang, because Summer decided to tell Ozpin she cried sometimes at night. They all didn’t trust her because of postpartum depression. In hindsight, it was a criminal simplification. 

     “Little baby Branwen is going to be a fighter,” Amber corrected politely. The last name of little Yang was turning out to be quite a topic of discussion. Qrow, the government, and Amber prefered Branwen. Ironwood, out of malice; Taiyang, out of fatherly attachment; and Ozpin, despite his repeated apologies, all called her Xiao Long. Summer constantly reminded them, in jest, that Yang was the first golden haired Rose and the rest could kindly fuck off. That made Raven laugh, crack a smile, but she never threw in, never called her anything really. Yang. The child. Her. Raven felt like the name should belong to the mother, and at the time, she wasn’t sure if it was far to consider herself it.

     “You’re not going to send Yang out there with a battle axe as soon as she can crawl, are you?” Raven joked in a wisp of a voice, comedy hard in front of the Atlas military man. She felt a pressure, pushing the mother into the far corner that frankly wasn’t there or certainly wasn’t intended. “Let her walk first, at least.”

     “Nah, she’s got her tiny fists. Give me a battlecry, little buddy, give me a roar!” Amber’s fingers descended on the little thing. The tips sweetly and like the bristles of a brush toyed at her sides. Yang let out a yelp and some jumbled giggle.

     Raven never stopped mourning her fantasy, but she had to admit, when the gold hair didn't make her want to rip out the roots, Yang was the cutest little bastard she had ever seen. She loved her as much as she had the heart to, and loved those small baby sounds. Closing her eyes, the world was brighter with just the sound.

     I don’t know exactly when the epiphany that she still loved Yang hit Raven. That she , despite her mourning, her depression, despite never feeling quite the way a mother should, still wanted that little creature to be in a bundle, warm and laughing, untouched and in the light. The rest of her actions required that revelation of love.

     “If you’ll excuse me,” Ironwood announced, brushing the nonexistent dust from his coat, happily taking those heavy booted steps towards the door. “I need to use the restroom. I’ll be back momentarily if you’ll watch Yang for me, Autumn.”

     “Always.” The young girl smiled and nodded, happy as could be with her pseudo-little sister. A shame Yang never knew how loved she was by this dark olive girl. 

Ten more steps, one shut door, and Raven was free to lift her chin, dark red eyes peering over her nestling and adoptive sister. “Amber, I have a question.” The autumn maiden met her gaze without hesitation or fear. The odd Branwens and their grimm colored countenance was a comforting presence.

     “You wanna hold her?” Amber countered the question with one of her own. She lifted the baby up by the arms and pressed that tiny body to her chest. Yang giggled, fat cheeks pulled up in the chubbiest little smile. She loved the adventure of movement, bouncing in her yellow onesie, begging to be shaken around more.

     “I,” Raven felt her voice crack, no one really asked like that anymore, “Yes, can I?” The question left a meek dust on her lips that tasted bitter. What kind of mother needs to ask? Amber didn’t seem, or care to notice.

     “It’s mommy time, Yang. Let’s go!” Amber kept her tight and stomped towards Raven, making all the big monster noises she could dream up, “oh no, who's going to free you from this horrible grimm,” the little one giggled, no way she understood anything coming out of Amber’s mouth, “It’s Raven, the undefeated huntress of Forever Falls! I am defeated!” She collapsed onto her knees at a rate one might say is too slow to sell the bit. Baby Yang squealed in delight, held out into the room corner, the sunlight splitting orange bars over her lilac eyes.

     “Hi,” Raven whispered, hands wrapping around the cotton cloth of her child. Despite their unusual level of separation, her arm instinctively formed the a cradle. It popped its gold topped head back and forth, comfortable in this distant guardian’s hands. “How are you?” Yang said nothing. Raven didn’t know what she expected.

     “So what were you gonna ask?” Amber found her own comfortable spot against her idol’s shoulder, resting her cheek against the unarmored red dress. She had earned the right to physicality and Raven did not resist.

     “Do you want to stay here?” Raven started, the time to move was coming, the pieces in place.

     “In this room?” Amber asked, her voice ending in a sleepy yawn. Taking care of the little one was hardy work for a teenager. Unsurprisingly, her lids fluttered to a close and breath steadied.

     “In Beacon, in the brotherhood,” Raven clarified, toying with Yang’s checks with her free hand. The small one had gained a good bit of weight since she took her first breath. Chubby and energetic, her pink hands clacked away at the touch. “If I left somewhere, would you want to be here or free?” Before she even knew it, Raven tossed out her dice. There was no turning back now.

     “I am free,” Amber mumbled, traipsing back and forth between the dreaming and waking world. 

     “Can you, right now, walk out and catch a boat to Vytal, Mistral, anywhere?” Raven tilted her head, cheek resting on top of her sleepy surrogate daughter’s brown waves of hair. Autumn’s eyes opened and mind began to stir.

     “I’d ask Ozpin first, he’d want to—”

     “Could your teammates?” Raven cut off her excuse. Free-ish was not the same as free. Amber could not just go see her father, nor him her. It was true, perhaps not just in Raven’s view, that a leash rarely tugged is still a leash, and a cage often opened is still a cage. “Now what’s the difference between you?” She postulated, tracing back her original doubts and sharing them with the youngest of the maidens. “I know my brother can, and  _ would,  _ travel the world if he wasn’t waiting for me. I’m not free, are you?” 

     “It’s because I’m still a teenager,” Amber rationalized. No longer a sleepy headed child, her eyes were wide open, alert as they were brown. She pulled away from her chosen role model, unconvinced, but listening. Listening was all Raven wanted.

     “Am I?”

     “It’s for our own good,” the Fall Maiden offered to her summer peer. 

     “Is it for the weapons own good we lock them in a safe, or the good of the one with the key?” Raven countered, expecting not an answer, just consideration. “I know people are after my power, but if we are trying to keep it out of the hands of non-maidens, why are the maidens the ones in chains?” The huntress kept her voice hushed, both for the baby and the ears Ozpin may have embedded in the walls. “Are they protecting us as people or as weapons? And if so, what makes them justified to do so?”

     “Are you saying Professor Ozpin isn’t a good man?” Amber asked bluntly, her brows pinched aggressively. It was hard for Raven to tell if she was convinced or convicting the huntress of treason.

     “I’m just saying, he is a man as much as any other, but with authority derived by our ability to do this,” Raven’s free hand set the air aspark. Flames with no source hovered and strung together between her fingertips, hot and feasting on some invisible magics. “And in my time on Remnant, I found I don’t trust any moral authority, especially one so old and  _ archaic _ over my own.” The Summer Maiden’s flame danced around her digits, heat enough to flush their faces and dry their eyes. Between such serious expressions, Yang giggled, hands reaching out for the fire, enthralled by the magic light. Raven kept it just safely out of reach. I think she found some joy in that moment. What other mother got to hold up the sun itself for her baby? 

     “The maidens have a purpose, to do such good out there and I guess,” Raven continued, “I’ll always trust simpler souls on their own, than old men buried in secrets.” This baby, it might never feel quite right to Raven, but its hands wanted hers, and I know she wanted it to have that simple life. “I plan to leave, leave this place with Yang. I won’t make you come with me, that can be your choice, but you have a choice. All you have to do is say the word.”

     The nursery door swung on its hinges, the thudding steps of their Atlesian warden followed and Ironwood was back, happily refreshed. “My apologies for the wait—Raven!” His body clenched up at the sight offire and the face full of heat. Yang still giggled and tried her best to nab the flame, but Ironwood was not laughing. “Get away from her!” James sprung with greater mass and plenty of surprise. One arm snatched the baby and the other slammed into her, nearly bashing his entire shoulder into her center. If he had hoped it hurt, Raven felt worse. He was one snap of the finger away from being reduced to ember, but Yang’s wailing just stalled her completely. 

     “She wasn’t hurting her!” Amber screamed, pushing against the larger Atlesian commander. A teenager’s cry has a way of knocking people to their senses. Ironwood backed away, baby still in his arms, shielded from the maidens. Raven, her lip was bleeding from how hard she was biting in her anger. Old James would get his, I’m afraid, far worse than the man deserved.

     “She was endangering the child. What sort of psychopath plays with fire right in front of her newborn's face!?” His chest rose and fell in strong repetition. His hair was already damp with the stress sweat. With every second he seemed to grow more unsure of his actions and less of Raven’s . She stood, brushing off the pain in her chest. She was a stronger huntress than Ironwood could imagine. 

     Amber, well, no argument was more persuasive than what she had just seen. The Fall Maiden, so small then, took her stand for personal independence. You know how this ends, but I promise, that spirit never left her. Amber never just accepted things, not after that. Maybe if she did she would still be alive. “I’m telling the headmaster.”

     “Professor Ozpin is a wise man,” Ironwood argued, “He’s old enough to know complete responsibility when he hears about it.” The young officer stood straight, back aligned with his legs, soon to be the fourth headmaster of Atlas, led it during the peak of his power. You have to admit, holding a baby in the face of two of the most powerful beings in existence, he has courage.

     “Go to hell,” Raven muttered, turning out of the nursery, off to the Emerald Forest to kill some things, but soft steps quickly followed. The Fall Maiden had more to say. 

     “Raven, no matter what, I’m with you!” Amber shouted, enough to turn more than one head at Beacon. Her short brown hair in her face, lithe form muscled from training, but still awkward in the hands of a growing teenager. She certainly seemed willing to take on the world. I can guarantee Raven smiled at her, bright and hopeful.

     “Always Amber.”

 

* * *

 

     “Tai, stop being a lazy shit and let's finish all the wood today,” Qrow shouted from his stump, a small choice selection of Vytal forest wood to his left, an axe to his right, and a full coating of sweat from the heat staining his clothes. The sun came down hard that day, even as the redness was fading from the sky, it cooked them alive in their combat clothes. 

     Raven ended up with that forest getaway after all, with the shimmering and tall swamp grasses to swim through. All the touches of the natural world against her skin again. Their chosen patch of Vytal, a three way cross the sporadic woods that began to vanish this far from the mountains, the small lake fed by several serpentine streams, and the more open rolling green fields Vytal was famous for, covered completely in emerald weeds. Yet, this was not quite what she wanted either. This vacation was a mandatory getaway, an attempt to deal with the depression with her entire team watching out for her, as well as just watching her. Better than James.

     But there was another little notch of disrespect. Yang was not allowed with her. Ozpin gave her a thousand well rehearsed and produced explanations, but the reality was, since the incident with the fire, Raven was kept even farther away from her child. Temporary, Tai and Summer kept saying. Qrow prefered calling it bullshit, and that's why she loved him. Yang wouldn’t play with bugs for the first time, dig her tiny fingers into the dirt, feel the cold of the lakes licks while Raven held her. She wouldn't be able to breath air not filtered in that tower for the first time since her birth.  _ Soon, though _ , Raven swore, whether Ozpin wanted it or not.

     “Couldn’t we have just taken some with us? Do we really have to make everything ourselves?” Taiyang asked as he stepped out of the boy’s tent, pitched opposite of Raven’s loggings. The site of their camp lay in the remains of a small faunus post. Often little wooden remains would dot the water lines of Vytal’s rivers, the faunus here nomadic and structures meant to belong to everyone. This camp was old, the paths mostly grown over and only two of the three structures stood, and of them only one Raven felt safe in. Summer and her set up their bags in the small red triangular structure. The crimson paint was flaking off, but the wood was not rotted and the supports still held.

     “This isn’t a resort, Tai, you want something, natural world and all that shit,” Qrow countered, slapping the old rotted stump that had been used as a cutting board for half a century from the look of its gashes. 

     “If it’s not a resort, why are we here for vacation?!” Taiyang shouted, the heat never agreed with him, especially when the moisture clogged the air like a steamer. Regardless, he came when beckoned by the older Branwen. 

     “Because it’s not for you, idiot,” Qrow rewarded him with a swipe to the back of the head as soon as the blonde came into range, “It’s for your baby’s mama,” _ ew, _ “she could use a brake after all this bullshit.”  

     “I’m present you know.” Raven planted herself cross legged where the water met the soil, bare feet an inch away from the little waxing and waning tides of the freshwater. It was a good spot, the bamboo pole in her lap, string tied to it to form a rudimentary fishing rod. Works well enough for the small prey she hoped to bring home for a small fire lit dinner. They had rations, but where was the fun in that?

     “I hadn't noticed. The smell of brooding sister is shockingly close to pine wood,” Qrow joked, setting up the first log for Taiyang’s axe. The blonde was making a big show of it, marking the center with the blade, doing practice swings, rolling up his sleeve. Around log ten Raven felt confident he'd be real fucking tired of the showmanship. 

     “I am not brooding,” the maiden snapped, even if the fish weren’t.

     “You’re extremely broody.” Qrow didn’t back down.

     “I am perfectly content.”

     “Nah,” Taiyang cut in, snapping his tongue like it would excrete some wisdom, “You’re at least a little broodish.” 

     “I am enjoying fishing, I’m finally out of that damn tower and maybe I want a little less talking!” Raven nearly went into a full scream, the stress was getting to her more than she realized. The tranquility of a rippling lake wasn’t quite calming the nerves like it was suppose to.

     “Yeah, she’s broody,” Tai turned to Qrow and thought he was funny. “Anything I can do for you bud? Maybe a back rub, get the stress knots out.” He was pretty good with his hands, but Raven rather vomit. 

     “I got this!” Summer’s voice was muffled from inside the small structure. Her job was interior decoration. If they were going to have a love nest in the middle of nowhere Vytal, it was going to hit all the benchmarks of a Rose certified living quarters. “Raven, come in I’ve made our bed, it looks cute!”

     “I’m fishing!” Raven yelled back, though all the screaming probably chased away the two finned bastards left in the lake.

     “Qrow can take over!” Summer shouted right back.

     “Qrow sucks!” Raven didn’t turn to see if Qrow took exception to that.

     “I do suck.” He did not.

     “You will regret not~” Summer reverberated with a bit of a sing-song melody at the end, the final notes a thin taunt. Raven just wanted one bite, one little nibble to say this wasn't a waste of time. It was her vacation, probably the last all together like this, and certainly the last not on her dime.

     “Don’t be mad,” Raven called out, choosing her spot at the riverbed, comfort and the company of fish over whatever problem she might ha—

     “Not that kind of regret love~” Summer giggled at the end and Raven turned a very dark shade of red from what I’ve heard. They were always an open pair, spared the details but no one questioned their employment of their bodies from time to time, but the invitation in such a sultry voice right next to their friends and family? Well, surprising no one, Raven burned to the tips of her ears.

     “We need to hang out with other women, Tai,” Qrow groaned. He did not look forward to hearing anything, especially considering how fast Raven lept towards the cabin's door. “Let's fish, just a little up river. Please, just please.”

     “Summer, so what did you n—” Raven spoke at a thousand miles per second, coming to a dust kicking stop when the door opened to the wind, “—eed.” Most lovers lose the initial lust one has when seeing them in their natural form the first time. It’s not that they stop being beautiful, simply we get more accustomed to it, becomes only natural. Summer though, to Raven, always managed to reinvent herself. The way she sat on the bed, one leg hanging off slender in the low light, smooth to the touch and shimmering, the other raised up in contrast both agape to show off a patch of black and the hint of more. Her arms stretched out as pale as her pillows, letting her muscled tummy, growing out strains of black and red, and the lightly dropping sight of her chest, pull Raven in. 

     If that didn’t work there was always her smile. Softy etched in round cheeks with warm eyes and flashing silver irises. “Can you close the door? It's a little, uh, breezy,” Summer’s voice cracked a little with a gust of wind, the giggle that followed could send a beast to its knees. 

     “Oh, yeah,” Raven’s mind might have flashed white, but closing a door still fell within her functional range. So was peeling off the ribbon belt from her waist and tossing boots at the nearest corner.

     “Well, we haven’t had sex since we got Yang, which I understand, it's been busy, but I figured now might be a fun restart for us?” Raven’s shoulders were something to behold according to Summer, arms and chest of someone who could wield a greatsword with that level of depth and precision were apparently a thing of great interest to that young huntress. She licked her lips as a freed ponytail draped the maiden’s naked chest in tendrils of silken black, eyes red and hungry, looking back at her. “I understand if you’re not ready, but if not, I want some cuddles, naked cuddles perferabl—hey!” Raven was barely in a pair of shorts by the time she reached Summer, picking up the huntress’ entire body like a gentle forklift and slathering her neck in kisses. A weak spot from what I’ve heard. 

     “Yes, please.” Raven begged into her lover’s collar. She loved the way Summer’s long fingers delved deep into the straight frays of her hair, pushing for more of that sweet touch. 

     Summer laughed as warm skin held her tight, just the way she wanted, “I’ve missed you, love.”

 

* * *

 

     “You really wanna do more?” Raven asked, feeling Summer’s hand trace her inner thighs, finger brushing where no one elses were welcome. This tease was a dangerous game between sexually frustrating, a nice slow build back up, or just a gentle downgrade. Usually though, it just meant Summer wanted to love on her more, leave more marks. Raven usually took lead, at the start, but damn if the Rose did not out do her in staying power.

     “Leaving the option open, I just missed you,” Summer whispered into the back of Raven’s neck, cold breath icy and sweet on the sweat glistening hair. Raven was astounded she could breath in that jungle, much less find the other side. ”I can’t believe we waited this long, the pregnancy was dry enough,” Her leg slid over the maiden’s waist and entangled their bodies further, not to mention the other hand that happily held onto Raven’s stomach and a free breast. What a mess.

     “I’m sorry—”

     “No, it’s not something to apologize about. I’m only joking, love,” Summer complained with a wispy voice, tugged by the pains of sex driven sleepiness. 

     “I just, it felt a little, this sounds dumb, but  _ dirty _ .” Raven couldn’t explain it. The problem was irrational, for one, that certainly didn’t help. Being with Taiyang wasn’t an STI, but it felt worse than one. A real degrading virus. 

     “Because of being pregnant?” Summer assumed, and Raven did not blame her, “You weren’t dirty. Regardless of the bowling ball belly, I wanted you so bad, I was hoping you go into my gutter.” The funniest part was just how slow and slurred Summer sounded, like a fifty year old drunk man.  _ Old lecher.  _

     “Please stop it with the dirty talk, you are awful,” Raven complained, but Summer never cared, she knew Raven loved her and her bowling puns.

     “I just want you to know, you never needed to feel dirty because of a belly.” Raven couldn’t decide whether her inability to view Raven’s sin as evil was her boon or bane. It didn’t change the guilt, only shuffled it.

     “I felt like I betrayed you. I regret it so much.” Summer’s hands stopped, her breath hitched. She tried not to judge with her reaction, but she did, she was afraid.

     “You regret Yang?” Summer’s voice quivered, though she did her best to hide it. She was way too in love with that little baby to not be afraid. 

     “No, despite what they are saying, she is my… she’s just a happy wonderful thing. I don’t regret her.” Raven sighed in relief when she could feel the chest pressed into her back fill and contract once again, reanimated. “It's just she could have come later. I wanted our child, our baby. With you. I felt like I had to, and with Tai. I regret cheating on you, I’m sorry.” Raven didn’t cry, though she could feel that tightening in her throat and chest, the misting in the eyes.

     “Love, she is our baby, you never cheated,” Summer denied. 

     “If she was my baby, why can’t I hold her without guards watching me, why isn’t she bundled up with us?” Raven’s voice hitched a ride right to the doorstep of shouting. “She’s Ozpin’s tool, we all are. We have always been.” Summer pulled way, both arms clutching Raven’s center, pulling her tight and close. Not the grip of a lover, but the suffocating hold of a scared child. “I’m leaving Summer, when I get back. I’m leaving with Yang.” Raven turned around, shifting her body under this pile of skin and blankets. On the other side Summer was crying, not even trying to resist, just holding back the sounds as the tears poured and nose sniffled. This was torture. “Summer, come with me, please.”

     “We will be maidens, we can’t l-leave,” Summer jostled the end of her sentences in pain, knowing maybe even before Raven the impasse that strutted towards. Raven had no idea she was breaking up with her. “Ple-ease no, R-raven~” the held note was a painful whine, not the sing songy love they use to have.

     “I know, and I plan to keep helping people, out there, as a huntress. Amber wants to as well. We can take Yang, she can really be our baby.” Raven placed her hand on Summer’s cheek, wiping away the stream if tears, so confident their love could overpower everything. Summer smiled, though her eyes were redder than Raven’s.

     “L-l-love, please. I’ll talk to Ozpin. I know he’ll understand if I tell him what's going on in your heart,” Summer’s pleading reminded Raven too much of a trapped dog. She hated Ozpin more than anything for reducing this proud warrior to his pet.

     “Why do we need his approval?!” Raven shouted, her anger cracking when she saw how fearfully Summer recoiled. The huntress pulled all her resolve, swallowed the weight in her throat, and tried to reason with Raven.

     “Love please, we will get what we deserve. We will both be maidens, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have our family. We can move into a little house on Patch, away from the city, raise our girls like normal girls. We can travel, too. I promise this feeling is temporary. I promise, just wait a little longer. We will have such a beautiful future, just us and our daughters.” The dream sounded sweat, Patch was a beautiful rural island, a little too far to be at Ozpin’s beck and call. The hot summers, colorful autumns, deep winter snows, and springs ripe for growth. Almost freedom.

     “I just,” Raven struggled, what was the point in rebellion without Summer to fight for? “So you want a second daughter and a little house on Patch? Get bunk beds?” Raven broke down, feeling weak, but willing to dream, taken away by hope. Maybe the next one, Qrow might help make it closer, maybe the next one will look even a little like her.

     “I’m sure Yang and her sister will want their own rooms,” Summer started crying again, her eyes shining with a mad hope, one too quickly dashed by her panicked running mouth. It was too late anyways. Any hope of preventing this tragedy ended months prior, this delusional hope, it was just love’s blinding and mindless refusal to give up. It’s beautiful in a certain light. “It makes sense to have two. Ozpin almost suggested twins, but I’d rather carry the other. I’ll take the turkey baster though, I’m sure me, you, and Tai will appreciate a little more separation, huh?” Summer smiled, thinking she was funny. I’m afraid nothing funny remains. Our story is near over. I am so sorry for what is to come and my part in it.

     “Tai? Shouldn’t Qrow be the donor? Why Tai?!” Raven’s silent pit of jealousy opened up, bound to swallow them one day, but neither of them ever expected it to be there, that resentment. 

“I just… I was going to pick Qrow, but with Tai they will be biologically sisters. I thought that was reassuring when Ozpin mentioned it.” The name Ozpin had become a curse. A symbol for control. Raven no longer believed Summer could decide anything without it.

     “So you and Ozpin planned out my whole future?” Raven withdrew her touch, her body. She broke the precious chains that linked the two of them. Summer’s arms and the sheets that covered them.  Raven stood alone.

     “No,” the still hopeful Summer tried again, voice reverberating fear, regret, a sense of total guilt. She would die believing this was all her fault. “I’m sorry, I was being presumptuous of what I thought you wanted, of      course we can talk about it.”

     “No.”

     "No?”

     “No.” Raven clarified, standing naked, back turned to her lover, to the world. She felt the pain of chains dropping from her body, a weight she never wanted to lose. “I’m leaving. If you love me, you won’t tell Ozpin.” The last fragment of her faith. “Promise?”

     “I promise,” Summer cracked all to pieces, “I love you so much…”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So considering my house flooded twice, I think you all have to forgive me for this chapter being so god damn late lol. I’m real sorry, I did get a little lazy towards the end, been just criminally lazy a lot recently.
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> Anyways, for those reading please consider leaving a review or comment, they certainly help and I hope you are all ready for next month's fourth and final chapter of Paradise lost. It’s all coming to a head and I am so ready. Lol.
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> Thanks so much LazyKatze for the editing and I’ll see you for the last chapter next month!


	4. Tartarus

     Atlesian knights stood exorbitant and tall, a small fortune each. The tangled mess of wire and steel always seemed to perfectly reflect, or coldy absorb, all light. Not one balked at the sudden violence. Not one ran, cowered, or cried it’s true, but for such a marvel of man’s ingenuity, they all crumbled and snapped as easy as any other prey to a huntress. Raven could not help but wonder as she cut down the automated defenses, _what a waste of effort_. They could not replace the power of a soul, or the force of it reverberating through her blade.

     “Bar the doors!” one of her men called out, ordering the others in his attempt to prop every bit of furniture against the nursery’s one exit. Bookcases turned to bulwarks and chairs into bricks. Amber assisted, too, the force of autumn winds pulled more from the great hall, and rubble of Ozpin’s mechanized army, to set up their blockade.

     “I think I hear footsteps! They’re trying to break in!” Raven was already sword deep into a knight, the machine sputtering towards stillness before the hard slamming on the nursery door began. They were quick, these lifeless hunks of steel, but Raven put her faith in humans and faunus. “We’ll hold it, you get your daughter, huntress!” And they had not yet failed her.

     Three in total. The old security forces for Beacon, two human and one faunus chief, Srebro, who Raven had known when she had gone to school there. His hair had turned frayed gray and skin blotched with dark spots since he had been let go. Old and no hunter, he was a natural leader and convinced two others to join their party; both younger security guards who shared Raven’s misgivings and distrust. An innocent man had no secrets Srebro had told Raven, and in exchange she relayed him the truth. He never spoke of it, but I could tell with the way he looked at me, looked into my eyes with disgust.

     “Raven,” Amber whispered, staff pointed down their last stretch, a hallway of dark stone, lined with doors to empty rooms and ending in a large dome. There lay resting Yang’s crib and a wall of Atlesian Knights. The baby’s nurse was gone, though Raven guessed, wrongly, she was let off for the night.

     “Come with me, my portal won't stay without me.” The only huntress among them did not wait to argue, she couldn’t afford to. Enemies surrounded her child, caged them. They were soulless, designed to kill, nothing but grimm with collars. _Die._

     The bolts they shot could never hope to graze a maiden, one touched by fire especially. Red was her fire, was the color of her eyes, and burned in her footsteps. The flame of summer heat burned with her forward strike. The blade of her sword didn’t cut, it melted. The collapsible odachi extended,  dismembered two knights. A third thought to smack her with the butt of its rifle, but Amber’s control over the storms let sparks fly, cracking and coursing through the metal. It connected to the remaining guards, each bolt chaining to the other, except for the final two, standing perilously close to the crib. They held their guns taut and carefully, the barrels aimed at both. This scene only then began to feel odd. The number of guards was too numerous, even for Yang.

     “Ozpin, I know you’re listening,” Raven spoke through her helm, a bone white and red grimm mask. It gave her the wild persona of a beast, not a woman, matched with colors of black and blood red. “The fighting is just putting Yang in danger.” She and Amber circled the dome, each pulling the bots’ focus to the sides of the room and hopefully making them engage. Any attack would risk harming the child, all they could do was prepare, cast in moonlight from the glass moonroof. A crescent that night, shining sickly yellow and cracked apart.

     “Raven,” Ozpin’s voice, distorted by the machines’ rudimentary speakers. He sounded so calm, so unwavering, like a sweet father, a facade that worked, and only made Raven’s blood boil with a summer’s heat wave. She did not know our shaking, our anxiety. Perhaps it would have been better that way. “Please, put down your weapons. We don’t need to fight, just talk. I promise there will be no need to punish Amber or the others if you just open the door, and let us in.”  A threat wrapped in velvet cloth, one meant more for the others than Raven, but it only solidified her hate. That didn’t matter, we had already abandoned her to Tartarus in our hearts. She just didn’t know she was damned yet.

     “Ma’am, they’re breaking through!” Down the hall her crew put all their weight and force onto the door, but the Atlesian knights, however stupid, were strong. Metal hands were already smashing through the oak. Thuds reverberated above.

     “Damn it, Ozpin! I will cut them down, all of your knights if I have to. All this is doing is putting Yang at risk. All I want is out of your cage, don’t hurt a child over it!” More knights were pounding the thick bulletproof glass above. All exits were sealed. All but her own.

     “Raven,” Ozpin spoke so softly, almost dulled to nothing by the beating of the walls, so sure, so content with himself, “You were always free.” _Lies, fucking lies._ “As for Yang, I promise I would never allow anyone to hurt her, not even you. She’s in no danger. Raven, surrender.”

     “No!” Raven charged the knight, dodging under his shot. The round split the fabric of her shoulder cloth and blackened the wall, but that was nothing compared to what she would do to this shadow of Ozpin. The odachi retracted for close combat, letting her take a rising swipe at its legs. No fire this time, to protect Yang. The machine buckled and fell, the one on the other side began to react. Raven didn’t allow it. Her sword extended again, giving that extra reach to let her decapitate the mechanized soldier.

     Devoid of its head and central processing, like anything else, it faltered, servos shutting down. The last thing it managed to do before collapsing onto the floor was take the crib down with it. The wood fractured, a heavy snap as its legs and walls tore asunder. “Yang!” Amber cried, dropping to her knees to sort through the rubble. Nothing else cried with her. Machines beat glass, tore through wood, but no baby screamed, or bubbled, or grumbled. Yang Branwen was gone. “Oh god... what did we do?” Amber didn’t get up from the floor, her shoulders slumped and spine went limp. She was in tears, still just a little girl.

     “Get it off!” One of Raven’s men were being pulled through a hole in the door, too small for his body, metal hand clawing at his face. Early knights were perhaps overzealous. He would be the only one of the rebels to not to live past the night.

     “Raven, what’ll we do?” Amber whined what everyone was begging. This whole plan, dragging everyone here into this death trap was about the child. Where was she? Would they have to strike out at Ozpin? Could they? Two maidens against all of Beacon? Larger question: would she? Easy to leave, but would Amber fight hunters? I imagine Raven faced that horrible realization alone, that just maybe this was the trap.

     “Nothing-g,” Raven stuttered nervously at the end, head whipping between all the pieces on the board. There was no getting Yang back, if she was ever hers to get back. “Everyone, surrender. Amber!” The huntress dropped to her knee and took off her mask, face to face with her apprentice once and for all. She had done well and would continue to do so as the autumn maiden. “When Ozpin gets ahold of you, tell him you were scared, tell him I was going to keep you from ever seeing Yang again if you didn’t help. Tell them I forced the others. Tell him I’m a monster.” Amber never did. She would silently give up and walk with heavy shame. I don’t think Raven ever learned that. No one ever fingered her a monster until later.

     “Raven?” the autumn maiden turned her eyes, stained in defeat and tears, towards her master for the last time in all her life. “Are you leaving?” There was no alternative. I don’t know what would have happened if she had stayed, but I can imagine. There is a reason we put birds in cages and coldly clip their wings.

     “Yes,” Raven stood up, sheathing her sword in the blade revolving lock. The cannister spun to the one best for her short ranged teleport, locking in her choice. They still had the escape boat planned, there was still... well not hope, but a chance of survival. “Goodbye, Amber,” Raven whispered as the glass above cracked and the door slipped open. “Become strong, stronger than any of the brotherhood, and trust none if them.” She unlocked her blade, the dust needed for portals. In one slice she split open reality, a hole in the world, sickly red and black welcoming her. Guards caught footage of her leaving, shots were taken, but she had already leapt through space by then.

     As I had predicted she would.

     Ironwood was already emptying the docks of interlopers, her teleport too short range and Vale too isolated for her to go anywhere else. Ironwood, Glynda, and myself all headed separate units with their own droids. Qrow and Taiyang came with their headmaster, to protect me, and to keep STRQ from acting... independently.

     Yang, she remained where she had been all night, in Beacon’s vault under the care of some of Beacon’s most trusted huntsmen and huntresses. Summer was called to be among them. She was supposed to watch Yang.

 

* * *

 

     The record for what followed is clear. Below Beacon the school's small port became a battlefield, though only a handful of people would ever know it. Evacuated under the guise of a grimm attack, Raven clashed against the knights throughout the pier, every one recording the fighting. They were no match. The machines could never land a shot by themselves and they never did. The first to hit Raven was a single handgun round from across the port. Ironwood was always better than his droids.  

     Video recordings of Raven show her drenched in a mix of oil droplets, blood, and a cold sweat from the wound in her side. Pier seven was her target, though she was without a crew, and the brotherhood made sure her boat was kindly escorted back to Vale proper.

     She carved through, blind to this. A flick of her odachi sent one of our recording knights into a crate full of perishables. The partner droid fired, the dust bolts flying right overhead and riddling the warehouses with more damage, all that the school would need to pay for and explain.

     Raven was the perfect enemy against the knight, she slid right under the stream of fire and slashed with an uppercut. The odachi’s variable length kept fooling their rudimentary AI. The robot didn’t even attempt to escape.  The extending blade caught his leg and cleaved past metal plates, rubber wires, and compact servos. The head mounted camera survived, falling to the floor, recording the grunts of Raven’s pain and the pattering of newfallen rain. The view stared into the cloudy sky and blurred with each droplet.

     “Damn it!” Raven is heard, somewhere between an animal groan and a very human screech of fury. You can hear her frustration as she reached a pier that ended in just rippling waters. She cursed, me probably. Ironwood, too, if she had managed to see him land that shot. We knew her teleport’s limit, the pier pinned her, she would have to get closer to Beacon before she could escape to Vale. She was in no condition to make that swim even if the river grimm weren’t thirsty.

     Holding the hole in her side, her insides contained  by soiled fabric from her torn sleeve, supported by her sword, a bent knee and a desperate look toward the sea, that’s how Summer found her. The rain dripped from the end of her mask like tears and the huntress’ aura was mute, a flame snuffed out in the downpour. “Raven!”

     Still, an ember, however faint and dim, can roar with the right fuel. Betray and scorn, that’s more flammable than dust. “You!” Raven trembled in pain as she pushed herself up from the pommel of her odachi. “You turned me in, and now you’re even going to bag me for him!” Fire kissed the earth where her blood tripped, maiden’s fury steadied her body and pushed away the pain.

     “Raven, please, you’re injured!” Summer cried out, expression obscured by her cloak, as was her gear. From Raven’s view she must have seemed a shadow of the night, a white phantom to take down the weakened huntress. “I need to bring you back to Beacon!” Summer charged her, running with abandon, head on. Why not? Raven couldn't muster a drop of aura, it was running down her leg, warm and sticky. Summer had speed, skill, hell she might have been able to take Raven, even with the maiden at her best.

     “How could you?! I loved you!” No one bites down on a raven without a few pecks, the huntress would die before being dragged back to her prison caked in filth to be delivered to us. Better to fight her betrayer and die a warrior. Raven lifted the odachi, both hands tightly clenching the wrap of its handle. She dropped a strike. _Fuck it_ , Yang could have her power. I bet she was thrilled I couldn’t use it, stuck in the body of a child, one last fuck you Ozpin.

     The attack connected, the red steel rended fabric and flesh cutting deep and jagged from the top of the left breast, down the sternum, and then out under the right. The deepest part chipped the bone itself. What wasn’t chipped was cracked by the heft of a huntress’ strike. The only thing that saved Summer’s life, was the grace of Raven’s horror.

     We all heard the crying scream of Summer’s fall. I don’t need the recording for that. She lay on the pier, convulsing and holding the cut closed to no avail. The pain was maddening, sucked out anything close to a thought. To say she could see wasn’t quite right, nor could she really feel herself on the floor. She had once sense: pain.

     “Summer!” Raven’s voice granted Summer some focus, though she could do little more than rock and bubble up bits of words. “Summer?! Why didn’t you block it?! Your Aura?! What the fuck is going on?!” Summer didn’t notice at the time Raven ripping apart her cloak to make a rather poor bandage, she could only focus on how massive her red eyes looked, how scared Raven seemed.

     “I-I did-id-idn’t think... I-uh, I,” Summer let out raspy breaths and tried so hard to make words, something coherent, “You-u would-uh, _ahhhh!”_ the pain spiked, we assume while Raven tightened the bandage, “Att-ttack me.”

     “You were suppose to let me leave! Not tell everyone! Not get involved!” Raven ducked her head onto Summer’s body, lost on options, lost in her heart.

     “I did-didn’t, I just, just, I though-ought I co-could ta-ta-talk you o-out of i-i-it.”  Summer’s lucidity was waning and Raven’s loathing waxing. “I pro-promised I would-wouldn’t, I- fuck, I didn’t tell!” Summer screams after that, she remembers nothing that followed. A third of a minute passed, nothing but broken words and crying can be heard by the fallen machines. No one  around to give us a proper record.

     Summer was not our informate, not till much later were her side of these events even told to me. I have no way of knowing for sure how Raven reacted to this, though knowing her for years, I can guess this was the point of no emotional return. Any dreams of coming back one day to reclaim her family were burning up hotter than the pier was about to be. I do know, better than anyone, how well Raven reacted to Ironwood, that was… clear.

     “Monster!” James pointed his handgun at the maiden like he would any common grimm, at the time I do not think he even viewed Raven as human anymore. We were just as confused at the time. “Get the hell away from Summer!” James fired no warning shots, three direct to the chest meant to kill, but Raven’s blood-drunk sword swatted all three like a storm slaps away a dinghy at sea. James was no fool, he noticed immediately the flickering embers that fluttered off the Summer Maiden.

     Raven flashed towards him in a blur of fire and smoke, the side strike nearly lopping off Ironwood’s head. The huntsman slid under the blade, keeping his focus on rescuing Summer, not killing the beast, too powerful for him alone. He fired back wildly to distract Raven, but each shot burned up before it touched her, the huntress chasing after him like a fresh warrior right out of Beacon. Hate can animate even a corpse.

     James knew his gambit, trusted his speed against her, even if it meant taking a nasty strike to the back. Still shooting, his free arm reached out, reached for the red and white mess panting on the floor, for what he believed to be the future maiden, his next charge.

     His hand touched her, but by then the thing was severed clear from the shoulder, the summer flame melting right through his aura, his uniform, muscle and bone. James felt a very similar rush of pain, but his drive kept him clear. He got to see his arm fall into the river and feel a kick send him into a crate.

     “Summer,” he moaned, rolling onto his stomach. The-soon-to-be general never knew when to lay down and at least pretend to die. Something that both screwed him over and served him well that night.

     “James,” Raven whispered just a little louder than our footsteps, “You’ve cursed every part of my life you’ve touched. You stole my baby, stole my future, my freedom, and now you and your people tricked me into hurting the only thing I love in this world. You’re a sick machine. A fucking tin man! Why do you keep showing up everywhere!? Why won’t you leave!?”

     In perhaps the most aggravating form of bravery, James didn’t even notice Raven speaking to him. He crawled, dragging himself with one arm, inch by inch, to Summer. “I’m coming, stay awake Ms. Rose! Focus on my voice!” If Raven ever saw the goodness in James, in his sense of duty, it was at that very moment, and it burned something wrathful in her.

     “Die, James.” Raven flicked her sword to clean the blood off it, a line of James’ own coated him down his wounded side. In one of the most twisted manifestation of a maiden’s power I have ever seen, Raven snapped, and his blood caught fire.

     Bright and red he burned, the pain gave him the strength to roll his twisted body around and in that ghastly scene we arrived. Just in time to see a engulfed Ironwood fall into the river and the battered Raven watching, flames streaking out of every tear in her clothes and each drop of her blood. She looked so tired despite being consumed by the summer’s flame. Looking into her eyes, I remember seeing the red irises of someone near as worn as me.

     “Glynda, get James! Tai, Qrow, no sudden moves, she has Summer,” I ordered in calculated monotone, never turning away from my former pupil. I clutched my cane tightly, the weapon in my hand could maybe match up to a maiden, _maybe_. The hunters at my side and the small battalion of Atlesian knights somehow were little comfort. “Raven, please drop your weapon. I can see you and Summer are both in critical conditio—”

     “Raven, what the hell happened here?” Tai tried to step forward. I believe he was, until this moment, still under the illusion this would end well.

     “Tai, Ozpin,” Raven snapped the flaming sword into the changing scabbard, the revolving cylinder preparing something. All the knights took aim at once. Even I rested my hand on the trigger of my cane, ready to leap into the fray. “Go to hell.”

     “Raven please, you can’t just cut your way pas—” Bringing Qrow was a lapse in judgement I have never forgiven. As soon as I heard the greatsword lock and shift form, I didn’t even bother fighting it. The scythe was at my neck and I sighed. “Put down the scythe, Qrow.”

     “Then stop pointing guns at my fucking sister!” Qrow was ill-suited to betraying his kin. I find that an offense easily forgiven, but this, this was foolish. Tai was no help, he dropped his weapon more in shock than fear.

     “Alright. Knights, please lower your guns.” The AI were perfectly loyal, all of them turning into a docile state immediately, not caring a bit for the robotic corpses strung about. Raven nodded at her twin, taking in one painful breath, spinning the cannister to another form, and swiping. I recognized that red eye, the burning hole in time and space. A teleport. She would hop through the woods, leaving a trail of half mile apart blood spots. If she didn’t pass out along the way.

     I stayed silent until she hobbled toward Summer, too dizzy and desperate to understand how idiotic that was. “If you try to escape with Summer you’ll just kill her.” Raven wasn’t listening, but the scream Summer made as soon as she tried to move her sure gave the huntress pause. “Summer needs medical attention now. Beacon has the best. She either dies with you, or lives at home where she chose to be.”

     Raven chewed on it, the fire embers and sparks that ran down her body still flickering against the rain. The air was trapped by the waterfall and grew hot and stale that night. It was a terrible day for all this. “Ozpin, if she dies—”

     “She won’t, I swear it. No one intends to keep you here, you’re free to leave. Summer and Yang will always be safe under my roof. I don’t think there is much left between us anymore, anyways.” People died that night, those who lived walked away with mental and physical scars that would remain deep even now. Honestly, I don’t think Beacon had room for her any longer. Her prison cell was warped and collapsed if it ever existed.

     “Yang doesn’t have an ounce of me in her,” Raven muttered her disownment to save herself more mourning, “but I swear old man, I swear to you and to any god alive, if harm ever comes to Summer Rose because of you, no matter when, no matter the reason, I swear I will burn everything you love. I swear, I will be ceaseless. Your fucking antithesis. I will grind myself to dust destroying every little thing you’ve built. I swear.” The coldness of her curse, Raven’s promise, was engraved in blood on the Beacon pier. I have never questioned its validity. She would be the queen of my personal hell, to spite every little thing I have ever done. My good would be her evil and my evil her good.

     “I will keep her safe.” I tried at least. I did that night, and for many more after it. I protected my pride and joy, the best huntress I would ever know, long past my memory of this promise.

     Raven whispered something to Summer, her mask kept me from seeing anything but the red of her eyes. No one will ever know, but I suspect it was a simple loving goodbye, forever. “One last thing, Ozpin. Who told you?” I had intended to lie, but Tai, the fool answered for me.

     “Raven, I swear I didn’t think this would happen. I thought you’d just calm down in the nursery. I heard you and Summer talking about it. Raven, I promise I just didn’t want you to take Yang away. I didn’t think this would happen!” He approached, but I snatched him, tugging him back by the shoulder, getting my neck nicked by Qrow in the process.

     “Tai,” Raven muttered, stepping towards her portal, the fire around the pier already vanishing under the constant drizzle, “you too, then.” The last words she had for near twenty years. A threat. Such a regrettable nightmare, the whole affair. I think few are blameless, certainly not I. Considering now, after all that has happened, I think I might regret most of all lowering my cane. The Summer Maiden power was better off in the hands of a baby, and this curse eternal, far too dangerous.

 

* * *

 

**Raven Branwen**

 

     The red gave way and my foot stepped down from one plane of space to another. This one soft below the sole, compacted soil and grass, ripe and damp from morning’s air. I knew the spot. A cracked piece of earth that formed a bare cliff, one the trees struggled to climb. Here one could look out over the world, feel, wrongly, as if they were above it all. A guardian, not a denizen, of a sick world. I loved this spot, the way it made my heart pound at the edge, melt when the sun drooped down and turned the land gold, or braved the winter blizzards. I showed her this spot. Brought Summer here, our first kiss, well first kiss as _lovers_ happened here, not three steps from the end of the world. Out in the open, not hidden in a forest. I remember it, so long ago and for some stupid reason I still remember it. She was shorter, but I was more clumsy. I muddled around with my hands, tried to be natural. Summer just arched up on her tippy toes and kissed me.

     So they tossed her corpse here. At least it wasn’t in some ugly city cemetery. They built a slanted little rock for her, all shaped out of gray lifeless stone. The carved rose inside seemed a dull imprint of what was meant to be. I’d like to think she’d have prefered a tree or a rose bush, something that lived, that grew, that changed and breathed, but what do I know. Over half a decade apart. I didn’t change, I was frozen in time since then, nothing but a husk of a huntress, waiting and sleeping in hedges, taking odd jobs. She lived, she loved, she had another child, she died.

     “Thus Kindly I Scatter.” I don’t know how much time had passed, walking from the forest line to the grave, I don't remember how long I stared, a stupid rose in hand, red and flush and cut and thornless. The words etched broke the silence. _The Last Rose of Summer_ , her favorite poem. It so didn’t match her, so bleak and hopeless, but it matched me. My garden is dead.

 

_’Tis the last rose of summer_  
 Left blooming alone;    
All her lovely companions        
 Are faded and gone;   
No flower of her kindred,               

_No rosebud is nigh,_  
To reflect back her blushes,    
 To give sigh for sigh.  
  
I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one!         
 To pine on the stem;           
Since the lovely are sleeping,  
 Go, sleep thou with them.       
Thus kindly I sca—

 

     “I’m glad you came.” I heard the crow call as soon as I came. Of course he watched, but I couldn’t be mad. Qrow was the only one to find me, to tell me what had happened and where she rested. I couldn’t be mad, I was just too tired anyways. “You missed the others, though I don’t know how talkative Tai would have been. He’s been drinking almost as much as me lately, but without my charming qui—”

     “I know, I was watching. I wasn’t here to pick a fight.” I didn’t watch closely, I didn’t want to see their faces. Not Qrow’s, not Ironwood’s, definitely not… Tai’s kids, or _Ozpin_. I just wanted to rest my stupid little rose opposed to the others, theirs were mostly white, like snow.  

     “I don’t think anyone wants to fight you, Raven.” I glanced back at my brother, only for a second. His face was poorly shaven and patchy at best, there was a stain on his collar and a worn arch in his back. “I can talk to Ozpin. It’s been years now. She would have wanted you to bury the blades—”

     “Brother, shut up.” I wanted to be alone, alone with Summer. The way we were meant to be, at a wild ridge of the world, staring into a low sun, ready for another tale of adventure. Not begging for pardons, not under a stone slab, not covered in booze stains and god knows what else.

     “Raven,” Qrow’s voice quivered at the ‘r’, he was like that whenever they met, about once every year or so. It was short, it was tense, desperate, and always so forlorn the way he talked to me. No one would believe that cool headed cynic could get so broken. “Ozpin can go fuck himself, but you have to see Yang.”

_No._

_“_ She’s so good Raven, so much like you, god. Her and Ruby. If you saw that baby, she’s like a little Summer, silver goddamn plates for eyes and all. Yang’s starting to ask about you, ya know? What the hell am I supposed to tell her, sis?”

     “Please.” Now I’m begging. It’s not even my kid.

     “Her eyes are fucking red, Raven. It’s like I’m staring at you all damn day!”

     “Shut up!” I don’t remember feeling it, but I had sunk to the floor. My hands still gripped the flower like a dumb child. I couldn’t even give the dead a proper offering, and she had wanted me to pretend I was a parent. “Yang has lilac eyes, gold hair, Tai’s complexion, even his curls. Why would you lie to me like that? What the hell is wrong with you, you drunk idiot!”

     “Sis, no, I meant,” Qrow stumbled back, the thud of a hollow man, just a wasted warrior with a sickle. Did any of STRQ survive her? “Listen, it’s purple, but sometimes it’s red, I’m not lying. Like when she’s real it's red. Please, I wouldn’t lie to you.”

     But he had and he was. I’m sorry, Summer, we really are pathetic. “Qrow.” I know she hates me, if Summer didn’t she will. “All I want to know, before you leave me alone, is who gave her the mission. It’s all I want to know.”

     “Raven, just listen to me—”

     “Qrow, answer the question.” In his own way, he already did.

     “Ozpin. I don’t know the details, all I know is that it wasn’t suppose to be like this, I swear.”

     “For once, I agree,” I kept my eyes on the rose, watched the scattered etchings distort and my tears ran silent and considerate. “I never wanted this. None of us will want what’s coming.” But what else was there to do? Why else should I live? The only two people who ever understood me were dead, one just more animate than the other. Everyone else vilified me. Even Amber. She never sent word, not once after all these years. I’m sorry, Summer, I’m such an awful creature, aren’t I? “Go away, Qrow.”

     He had the consideration to go, to leave me. I stayed for long after that. I mourned, stood vigil, and sharpened my blade. I intended to leave my heart here with her, to turn sullied and cold. Scatter the soul and leave only the butcher. Summer wouldn’t understand, she was safe and sound there in her tomb, returned to dust, but a world without her wasn’t worth protecting. Summer, I’m a devil, a wild force of nature that causes pain wherever I go. I understand that. I’m sorry you ever met me. So many years wasted trying to calm the storm, you had so precious few to spare, I’m so sorry. The storm is not calm, it’s hateful and bitter, and bound for once to something, a promise. You won’t forgive me, but I love you.

     At least I can’t hurt you now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo that's the ending. Paradise lost reaches it’s conclusion. God this was a bit of an emotional series for me. Very experimental in terms of my writing style and stuff. I hope it came off more fresh than distracting. Thank you all for sticking around if you did. I so appreciate the reviews and the support. For a fic that never took off, this little Rosebird story means a lot to me.
> 
> Special thanks to TigerLilly for being a big supporter of this fic and always talking it up to me when I was losing focus, and even bigger thank you to LazyKatze for editing this nightmare of opposing perspectives and non-linear storytelling. It had to be hard and it means a lot you worked hard and never complained.
> 
> Well this fic is closing and I have two coming to take its place. A Sci-fi White Rose AU, and a new modern White Rose AU that is basically the inverse of Choice, a bit of a romantic dark comedy. I hope to see you all there!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! I decided out of interest (and a lot because of RavenXSummer Fanart) to write an little 4 and a half part series about them, their relationship, and why everything went to hell. This will probably finish over the course of spring and early summer and yeah, hope you enjoy!
> 
> Thanks to Lazykatz for editing and doing the image edit if you're looking at this from tumblr or on FF. Next week is Summer's Vale Chapter 2 and after that SWK chapter 3!


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